Problem with new member video page

[WT]

Sky,

You asked us to let you know of an problems with the new video page. Sadly, using it tonight for the first time for more than one video, I notice that the abnormal early download end is back. :shock: :(

All 3 videos I downloaded (Latest WHP MPG, Webcam MPG and Webcam MP4) terminated after less than a second. Only when I tried each again did they download for longer. Not sure yet if they are complete, will find out tomorrow when I play them. For info, the video download rate was as normal: around 650 kbps total across all videos being downloaded, so the server speed is normal.

Sorry... :( :(

Once picked up, I will move this to a technical Board.

[skymouse]

Hi WT,

First of all, I'm sorry that you're experiencing this problem. It is something that would be unrelated to the new video page format, as the video files are originating in the same server, etc, as before. The problem occurs under circumstances when the download is interrupted for some reason before completion. The two most commonplace kinds of interruptions are 1) network problems, and 2) the web service rebooting at a time when you are downloading (it could reboot either because a technician rebooted the web server after configuration changes, or because of a system crash).

In all events, the problem is vastly more likely to happen when download big files, simply because there is a longer time frame during which an interruption may occur. For smaller files, this cause becomes more dubious, though it could still happen if there was a period of frequent problems.

The first cause, network problems, are hard to pinpoint because they don't leave much in the way of clues after the event, especially as there are no similar reports from other members (as yet) so there is no geographic element to help us.

On the other hand, if the problem was caused by the web process rebooting or crashing, I can search my web error log so long as I know the exact time when the problem occurred. So if the problem recurs, please let me know the date-time (in GMT) and URL of the file so I can see if something happened then. If it did, I can then get the hosting company to fix it (e.g. by adding extra RAM, disabling a rogue process, etc.)

SM